Automatic monitoring and sampling of harmful substances in estuaries and coastal waters

The results of investigations into the behaviour of heavy metals and organic micropollutants from different reaches of the Elbe River and the coast showed that the transport of these substances is influenced mainly by isolated events. As a consequence of the measurements and of the current understanding of estuarine and coastal systems the authors learned that automated sampling and analyses with high spatial and temporal resolution are required to assess the levels and interactions in these systems. The need for automated systems in the monitoring of chemical and biochemical parameters, resulted in the definition of the MERMAID programme which is an operative EUROMAR project with the objective to build up a remote-controlled, modular measuring system for the event-controlled sampling and in situ analysis of toxic contaminants in estuaries and coastal waters